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NHS trust put into special measures

A hospital trust that has been losing £1 million a week is to be put into special measures in order to turn around it's finances.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust will be the first in the country to be put under the control of a special administrator tasked with putting it on a viable footing.

The trust, which runs three hospitals, has been criticised over standards of care and has run up deficits of more than £150 million in the last 3 years.

The trust was told tonight that it is likely to be put into the "unsustainable providers regime" which was introduced by the last government.

The trust runs Queen Mary's in Sidcup, the Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich and the Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley. It released a statement this evening reassuring patients that services would continue as normal.

"I recognise that South London Healthcare NHS Trust faces deep and long-standing challenges, some of which are not of its own making.

"Nonetheless, there must be a point when these problems, however they have arisen, are tackled. I believe we are almost at this point.